Extinct animals you wish you could hunt

Earth today has a lot of unique and wonderful wildlife. Elephants and lions make impressive trophies, many invertebrates are fascinating, and many fish to catch. However, 99.9% of species that have ever lived are extinct. Among them were many species that would make great, challenging hunts and impressive trophies. We all know about dinosaurs and mammoths, but many species also existed that are far more obscure. I think that many people here would love to hunt some of these animals. For now, here is a list of six:

1. Entelodonts, aka "hell pigs" or "terminator pigs", were a family of large, omnivorous mammals more closely related to hippos and whales than pigs. The largest species, Daedon shoshonensis, was 1.8 meters tall at the shoulder and had a skull up to 90 centimeters long. The following link contains a size comparison of Daedon to a human as well as a skeletal drawing:

2. Inostrancevia was basically what you would get if you crossed a T. rex with a saber-toothed cat. Up to 11 feet long, this mammal-like reptile had a vaguely T. rex-like face, with the canines and body of a saber-toothed cat and limbs of a crocodile. A size comparison can be found here:

3. Kelenken. A flightless bird as tall as a man, with a beak measuring 18 inches long, this bird was the largest member of a whole family of carnivorous flightless birds known as the terror birds. Living with the terror birds were a whole ecosystem of weird and wonderful creatures, including "marsupial sabertooths" and "marsupial bears", as well as land-living crocodiles, giant ground sloths, giant armadillos and the ancestors of Macrauchenia, a long-legged horse-like creature with an elephant's trunk. Truly a hunter's paradise.

4. The entire Pleistocene megafauna assemblage of Australia. Australia might not be known for impressive megafauna today, but 60,000 years ago, Australia had a strange biodiversity to rival that of Cenozoic South America mentioned above. Of mammals, notable ones included Diprotodon, which resembled a giant wombat, Palorchestes, which resembled a cross between a tapir and a ground sloth, 10-foot tall kangaroos, and the marsupial lion Thylacoleo, which was eerily similar to the fictitious drop bear. The much more recently extinct Tasmanian tiger was also found on the mainland at the time. As for birds, they included the Genyornis, a flightless duck as tall as a man whom the diet of which is hotly debated, some have suggested they were herbivores but others say that they were carnivorous scavengers like hyenas. The reptiles included the giant goanna megalania, which may have been up to 20 feet long, the giant snake Wonambi, and the land crocodile Quinkana, which was 20 feet long and had thick, serrated teeth like a T. rex. Also of note was Pallimnarchus, a relative of Quinkana which lived in the water. Finally, it has been speculated by some that stegodons, an extinct relative of elephants, reached Australia, but so far there has been no fossil evidence.

5. All of Pleistocene North America. If the megafauna had survived to this day, America would likely be a more popular place to hunt than Africa. The fauna included giant ground sloths, the familiar mammoths and mastodons, the saber-toothed cat, the giant short-faced bears, stag-moose, giant beavers, camels, American "cheetahs" (more closely related to puma), giant condors and the saber-toothed salmon.

6. The Eurasian megafauna. During the ice age, Eurasia was populated by the woolly and steppe mammoths, straight-tusked elephants, cave lions, bears and hyenas, the Irish elk, the woolly rhinoceros and the Elasmotherium.

And halfway through, this list turns from individual species to entire ecosystems. In hindsight, I should have made this a topic about extinct environments you wish you could hunt in. I hope you enjoyed this list. Certainly fires up the imagination about prehistoric safaris (that aren't about dinosaurs).

A very interesting post! I recently became aware of two mythical/Bigfoot type critters in the Congo the Emela-Ntouka and Mokele-Mbembo. I had previously heard of the Mokele-Mbembo (long neck dino type creature) but the Emela-Ntouka never before. That animal is said, by the natives, to rip the bellies of elephants out with a horn. I believe what I read was the translation of the name means "elephant killer". Then I learned of a book written years ago by a European explorer who spent time in the area also mentioned the creature. The book was titled "18 Years on Lake Bangweulu". I can't remember the authors name, but the book is long out of print. Then I learned a fella in California I think has made several expedition's over there searching for the animal. He still seems optimistic and supposedly found tracks etc., much like the bigfoot thing here in the States. I have thought that would be a cool trip to go on if I was able to take a large double and had a license for the unknown creatures!

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.”
-ThucydidesTolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.

Make mine the Short Faced Bear. Ever since I saw a fossil of one of those mothers years ago I've been wishing I could hunt one. They were big , fast and could crunch bone with ease. They would have made for one hell of a predator hunt.

There are way too many animals that I'd like the privilege of hunting. SO to spotlight a rather obscure species, I'll pick Palaeoloxodon namadicus. Why? Because this elephant species holds the record for the LARGEST LAND MAMMAL OF ALL TIME and by that I mean this animal could measure in at 5 metres (16 ft) tall and possibly weighed 22 tonnes (24 short tons). That’s even heavier than the indricotheres and twice as big as the dinosaur Diplodocus carnegii. Even a fully grown Tyrannosaurus rex would feel small among these goliaths.

Sitting high up on a ledge with a .50 BMG, overlooking a valley with a goat tied off to a stake in the middle of it sounds like a slightly safer proposition to me. Though, the follow up required for a poorly placed shot would be pretty horrific.